KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — DAP’s national leadership will head back to the drawing board next week to discuss its position in Pakatan Rakyat (PR), national organising secretary Anthony Loke said today, after claiming the party had been “backstabbed” by its partners in Kelantan PAS.

In a strongly-worded statement here, the DAP leader accused the Islamist party’s Kelantan chapter of betraying PR by tabling amendments to the state’s Islamic enactment on hudud today, although the pact’s presidential council had instructed it not to.

“DAP would like to stress that we strongly object to Kelantan PAS’ move to ignore the PR presidential council’s decision on March 12... a provocative move meant to split the pact,” Loke said.

“DAP’s top leaders will hold a CEC (central executive committee) meeting next Monday in Kuala Lumpur to discuss and decide on DAP’s direction within PR after being backstabbed by Kelantan PAS today,” he added.

At 11am today, the Kelantan government tabled its amendments to the Shariah Criminal Code II (Enactment 1993), its first step towards pushing for the eventual implementation of the Islamic criminal justice system in the state.

The state PAS chapter also hopes to table two private members’ bills on the matter sometime this month in Parliament which, if passed, would enable Kelantan to implement hudud.

The move to proceed with this morning’s amendments was despite the PR presidential council’s request on March 12 that the PAS-led state government revise the Bill, which one DAP lawmaker said appeared to be an entirely new law.

Loke reminded PAS again today that hudud in its entirety was never a part of PR’s common policy framework, which the Islamist party had also agreed to as a member of the pact.

He said the DAP has always been consistent in its position that the Islamic law contravenes provisions in the Federal Constitution and is unsuitable for implementation in multi-racial, multi-religious Malaysia.

“Since the first day DAP cooperated with PAS and PKR within the PR framework we have always said that implementing hudud is not and will not be part of the PR consensus,” the Seremban MP said.

He said the DAP is committed to PR’s mission to replace the “corrupt” Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government, but alleged that some in PAS may be inclined towards offering ruling Umno a lifeline to save itself from total destruction.

“PR cannot succeed in toppling BN so long as we have enemies within that constantly ignore the pact’s principle of consensus, and choose to dance in the rhythm set by Umno,” he said.

Debate on Kelantan’s hudud bill at the state legislative assembly will resume tomorrow. The state’s 45 assemblymen, which includes 32 lawmakers from PAS, 12 from Umno and one from PKR, will also vote on the bill tomorrow.